A Global Training Center for Interactive Communication

In my book INTERNET 2025, I propose setting up a global training center for interactive communication. Of all the activities imaginable for fully harnessing the power of Internet technology, I feel this initiative to be the most important.

Internet, communications and computing professionals are currently having tremendous difficulty getting the information and acquiring the knowledge and training they need to design and develop top-quality Internet services.

If we are to enjoy outstanding Internet content and services in 2025, we must start investing now in training the people who will be designing and developing them.

The global training center for interactive communication I describe in my book is a new model of university teaching that represents a collaborative effort among several universities. The courses in interactive communication would be designed and developed so they could be adopted by universities seeking to affiliate themselves with the program and play an active role in their ongoing improvement.

Multimedia distance learning courses would be produced with the help of the best professors and professionals in the interactive communication industry. Students either on or off campus would do the lion’s share of their learning at their own pace using Internet-based multimedia modules and know-how.

These multimedia courses would not be videotaped lectures from professors but original, dynamic documents produced with the help of leading interactive communication specialists from many countries.

A variety of modules would be available on all topics and in all areas of activity, depending on the level of expertise and needs of the students and industry workers. Some modules could be consulted in a just few minutes or hours; others would be designed as courses lasting several days or weeks, with or without the help of professors, professionals and lecturers, in person or virtually on the Web. The human factor would play a central role in the learning process.

No university in the world has the resources and funds to go it alone in creating and supporting top-quality training in all areas of Internet-related expertise. I feel that collaboration among several universities is the key to tomorrow's higher education.